Why IT and accounting businesses need outsourcing partners that share their specialisms.
- Why specialists are best placed to give us outcomes we want.
- Why generalist outsourcers can’t provide the talent that IT and accounting businesses need.
- Five checks to identify an IT and accounting outsourcer that’s a match for your business.
Are you exploring adding an offshore IT team to your business? Or outsourcing accounting services? But when you Google or Bing ‘outsourcing IT services’ or ‘outsource finance and accounting’ you’re presented with a bafflingly lengthy list of outsourcing companies.
There’s a myriad of seemingly perfect outsourcing partners in the Philippines. So, what do you do? How do you choose?
Why specialists are best placed to give us outcomes we want.
We love specialists because they give us better outcomes than non-specialists.
- If our teeth hurt, a dentist is best placed to remove our pain.
- If we’ve got heart issues, we trust a cardiologist.
- A mechanic is best placed to keep our cars cruising.
- An accountant knows best how to book our numbers.
- An IT specialist keeps our IT systems seamless.
Specialists enable us to make informed, fast progress.
- They avoid pitfalls and know the next best action(s).
- They are credible when they speak to us / clients.
- They use their expertise to act in our interests and without instruction.
- They enable us to act fast because they’ve seen scenarios before.
Specialists run more successful businesses (than generalists).
- Specialism allows repeatable, efficient processes that lowers costs.
- Profits are higher because they process work efficiently.
- Their reputation for delivering effective outcomes wins them work.
It’s for these reasons that specialist IT and accounting businesses tell us that their perfect outsourcing partner(s) must protect and grow their reputations.
- They want a specialist provider of outsourced IT and accounting to save them money.
- But they need the peace of mind that comes with adding the right talent to their teams.
Why generalist outsourcers can’t provide the talent that IT & accounting businesses need.
Unfortunately, most outsourcing providers are not specialists in any given area(s). Often coming from a contact centre background, they attempt to satisfy demand for a wide range of skillsets.
Example: We searched ‘outsource accounting Philippines.’ This provider pays to appear at the top of results. But when we looked beyond their accounting landing page, we found this:
The business risks that generalist outsourcers pose to IT and Accountancy businesses that need specialist talent include:
- Providing talent that undermines your specialist reputation (the benefits we’ve listed).
- Creating a mismatch between the abilities of your local and offshore teams.
- Providing staff that you’re not able to put in front of your clients.
- Soaking up management time with recruitment and training.
- High remote staff turnover because of team members failing to ‘hit the grade.’
All the above leads to lower-than-expected cost savings, time savings, and reduced growth.
Here’s why:
- The HR teams at generalist outsources cannot attract and retain the best specialist talent.
- Their HR teams rely on you, the client, to sift strong and weak candidates.
- They can’t provide the ‘peace of mind’ support that comes with understanding your sector.
- They don’t understand the technology and tools that your business uses.
- They sometimes coach candidates to cover up skills shortfalls.
Five checks to identify an IT & accounting outsourcer that’s a match for your business.
1. Do site case studies support their claims to provide the specialist skills you need?
2. Does their LinkedIn feed consistently back up their claimed specialism(s)?
3. Do they mostly offer contact centre staff or ‘admin’ support teams? If so, avoid.
4. Does their site list only job roles that back up the specialism that you require?
5. Does their management team have experience in your specialism? Can you speak to them?
Thank you for visiting our blog! We hope you found our content informative and engaging. Stay connected with us for more insightful blogs, updates, and tips on outsourcing IT & outsourcing Finance in the Philippines, or shoot us an email at [email protected]. We are happy to answer your questions!
Learn more: Download our Step-by-step Finance Outsourcing Guide